Monday, 11 January 2010

Neige au musée Calvet

Snow at the Calvet MuseumOn Friday morning when the snow was falling heavily, my main challenge on my photographic adventure around town was to avoid exposing my camera to the mad swirls of snow. As I walked the streets I kept looking for sheltered areas from which to shoot and one miracle stop proved to be the Calvet museum : the lonely guard at the door, who had only seen three visitors in the whole morning and was getting ready to shut down early at 1:00 pm, kindly granted me free entry in order to take a few pictures from behind the windows.

If the large access roads to the city are now dry (with masses of snow on the road side), the city centre (intra muros) is nothing but a huge ice rink. My street is white with packed snow turned to ice. From my window I can see people walking in tiny careful steps, sliding and falling, it really is a high risk exercise. I think I'll stay at home.

My car is unusable anyway. It is parked in the street with a foot of frozen solid packed snow in front of it. I'm not going anywhere until it melts down a bit and I can shovel it.

School buses are still cancelled.My daughter's school has been closed since Friday and remains closed today. Massive absenteeism from teachers and students means there is no class. Guess who's happy ?

From my winter I see a sea of snowy rooftops glistening under the bright sun, it's plain gorgeous. But the air is so cold the snow is extremely slow to melt.

The snow has obviously been falling in a much more spectacular way in Avignon than here in Paris, but it’s of course also thanks to the photographer that it appears so nicely. In the discussion about which should be the top photo (Olivier, Cergie...), I would keep the present one, a very good choice in my mind! Stay at home today, we don’t want any broken legs or arms! :-)

School has closed down? You southern people really don't know how to handle snow, do you, hahaha!

Here in Holland, the roads are still covered in iced snow. The only thing that means is a fashion disaster: everybody's walking around in snow boots. But life goes on.

The very simpular thing between snow in Avignon and snow in Amsterdam is that people tend to help each other more. Even if it's only about making a photo. And a very beautiful photo it was, I might add!! Nicely done, Nathalie!